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"Baracchi has identified pivotal points around which the Republic operates; this allows a reading of the entire text to unfold. . . . a very beautifully written book." --Walter Brogan, Villanova University

Claudi Baracchi finds that, although arguably the most influential text in the history of Western philosophy, Plato's Republic remains obscure and enigmatic. To fully understand and appreciate its meaning, we must attend to what its original language discloses. In Baracchi's deft interpretation, primordial issues of life and death, darkness and light, force and harmony emerge from this important Platonic text. In a larger sense, Baracchi's stimulating book illuminates the fundamental function of myth in philosophical inquiry.